Technologies exist for obtaining 3D volume data representative of the internals of a physical object. For example, computer tomography (also known as a CAT scan) technology may be employed for generating a 3D image of the internals of a human body. The obtained 3D volume data may be processed and different cross-sectional images of the internals of the object viewed and manipulated by medical personnel to make diagnosis and plan medical procedures relating to the object. For example, the various images may be used in the dental field to view the bone structures of a person's skull and locate the mandibular nerve canal prior to placing a tooth implant.
Current mechanisms for locating items or sections of interest from 3D volume data are cumbersome and time-intensive. For example, with current mechanisms, a doctor or technician may make an educated guess as to a path in the 3D volume that contains the anatomy of interest, generate a cut plane of the 3D volume that intersects the selected path, and display a cross-sectional image of the 3D volume along the cut plane. If the initial guess does not exactly cut through the anatomy or sections of interest, the user modifies the path in and/or out of the volume in an attempt to more exactly locate the anatomy or sections of interest. The modification of the path results in the entire image data being reconstructed as a new cut plane is generated and a new cross-sectional image of the 3D volume along the new cut plane is displayed. This results in a noticeable time lag from the moment the user makes a change to a selected path to the moment the updated image is displayed. This trial and error process in locating anatomy or sections of interest is therefore very time consuming and tedious.
Current technologies also allow display of a 2D projection of volume image. A user selects a sub-area within a main projection, and displays different depths of the sub-area in relation to the projection plane by traversing different sub-projections that correspond to the selected sub-area. The sub-projections are stacked one behind another, and each provides information of an image plane that runs parallel to the main projection plane. The image displayed in the sub-projections, however, is not continuous with the surrounding data in the main projection, causing an incongruency in the overall image.
Accordingly, what is desired is a system and method for dynamically manipulating a curved cut plane intersecting a 3D volume for browsing different depths of the volume in relation to the plane while maintaining continuity of the image displayed to the user. It is also desirable to have a system and method for speeding the process of finding objects or sections of interest within the 3D volume by minimizing the time lag from the moment a user modifies the curved cut plane and the modified image is displayed to the user.